


Reflections

by Luthienberen



Series: Watson's Woes July Writing Prompts 2018 [17]
Category: Sherlock Holmes (1984 TV)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Religious Content, Spiritual
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-22
Updated: 2018-07-22
Packaged: 2019-06-14 09:56:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15386268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luthienberen/pseuds/Luthienberen
Summary: Watson reflects on the miracles he has witnessed as a doctor.Set after "The Empty House".





	Reflections

**Author's Note:**

> Written for July writing prompts. Prompt No. 21 The Dream of Gerontius. Use the orchestral work (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eJmnemMWfY or just the prompter’s  
> favourite bit at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAbOgpcSEYg) or the poem (www.ccel.org/n/newman/gerontius/gerontius.htm) as your inspiration today.

As a doctor I had witnessed many miracles while tending the patient in their sick bed. The child who was on the verge of death suddenly gasping and inhaling deeply, vigour restored to their eyes and limbs.

The woman dying from childbirth who would rally one final time to somehow survive beyond my medical and spiritual understanding.

The poor in our world, eking out an existence against the odds.

The men under my hands in the war who should have died, but miraculously did not. I would look aside at the priest attending and while also amazed they wore tired smiles of acceptance, granted surety by their faith.

Yet, the most astonishing miracle was when Holmes returned to me.

Oh, how I begged for such a thing to happen! I recall in my grief reaching out to the vastness of the heavens and crying out to the angels, God, and the saints…to _her,_ _Mother of God_ , to rescue my dear friend and return him to me.

After all I, unworthy solider, had been saved so why not a greater, wiser man than me?

When my prayers went unanswered, I merely begged in the crescendo of my grief that they save his soul from damnation and purgatory, for Sherlock Holmes had been a man of justice, if not the law. His sins, whatever they may been, surely could not outweigh the good? So I prayed and pleaded, certain in my conviction that there was someone out there listening after all the miracles I had experienced in my life so far.

Then Sherlock Holmes returned.

All my remembered prayers and pleas swam about me and the humbling knowledge that they had been received and my friend returned to me, as one priest had told me:

_“The Lord’s time is not our own. He answers us when we are ready and gives only when the time is right.”_

The shock of this overwhelmed me and I had fainted only to awaken to his touch.

Oh! He was corporal! His eyes sad yet living and the flush of life in his cheeks.

A miracle had been granted to me and I was at peace. All I could think before my world was once more caught up in Holmes’ energetic pace, were two words.

_Thank you._


End file.
